At long last, episode two of Speaking of Translation is available for your listening pleasure. This podcast, which is Eve Bodeux’s brain child and which I co-host, features news and views from the translation industry. The current episode is exciting because it features the live interviews that Eve and I did at the ATA conference [...]
Archive for December, 2008
New episode of Speaking of Translation is live
Posted in Translation industry news on December 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
What can a translator outsource?
Posted in Freelancing on December 16, 2008 | 10 Comments »
It’s about time to start thinking about business goals for 2009, and efficiency is always high on my list. One topic that I often think about but have never really acted on is outsourcing. To hear books like The 4-Hour Work Week (imagine yourself in that hammock on the cover!) tell it, outsourcing is one [...]
Link: an interesting take on translation quality
Posted in Links, Nubbin, Translation quality on December 12, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Ryan Ginstrom has a really interesting post (that links to yet another post) on translation quality. Besides learning the helpful term “chokuyaku” (apparently Japanese for “literal translation”), you can find out about one translator’s novel take on the “you get what you pay for” issue; this translator spends as much time on the project as [...]
“We just translate”…or do we?
Posted in Translation technique on December 11, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Early in my freelance career, I failed two translation tests in a row for two different agencies. Both of these tests were marketing/PR-type pieces, and the agencies’ comments went something like this: Agency 1: “Your translation was too faithful to the original. The French text was not very well written, and part of the translator’s [...]
Constructive things to do if you’re afraid of a work slowdown
Posted in Marketing, Money on December 5, 2008 | 4 Comments »
So far, the language services industry seems to be holding up well in the ailing economy. Although I haven’t had as many inquiries from clients in the past three months, the size of my projects lately has been larger than usual; I finished 26,000 words this week and will start another large project next week. [...]
Treadmill desk makeover
Posted in Treadmill desks on December 4, 2008 | 3 Comments »
After a number of months of using a treadmill desk, I’ve decided it’s a keeper. There are definitely some things (namely proofreading) that I can’t do while on it, and I generally alternate between walking for an hour and sitting for an hour during the day. Still, I find the treadmill desk to be ergonomically [...]
A great blog about OpenOffice.org
Posted in Links, Technology on December 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If you use OpenOffice.org, click on over to Solveig Haugland’s blog OpenOffice.org Training, Tips and Ideas. She’s the author of the OpenOffice.org 2.0 guidebook and her blog is full of tutorials on OO.o’s features. I use OO.o almost exclusively and really enjoy it, but some features that I used to find pretty intuitive in MS [...]
The best and worst of working from home
Posted in Working from home on December 3, 2008 | 12 Comments »
This fall marks my six year freelance-iversary, and I’ve been thinking about the pluses and minuses of the past six years in order to plan for the future. Before becoming a translator, I was a high school French teacher, which is about as far from the home office environment as one can get (think screaming [...]
Since Santa’s on his way…
Posted in Freelancing, Technology on December 2, 2008 | 4 Comments »
…and since you might be looking to use some money from your business account before the year ends, here are some items that have caught my eye lately. A little computer. It seems that the Asus Eee PC (from $329 on Amazon) is one of this year’s hottest devices; at 2.5 pounds and with 7 [...]
What I learned about translators while on vacation
Posted in Freelancing on December 2, 2008 | 6 Comments »
For everyone who celebrated U.S. Thanksgiving, welcome back to work! I always find that a vacation is a good chance to develop some new insights into work and life in general, and this one was no different. My family and I spent the week on a mountain biking and hiking vacation with another family, and [...]
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